Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood and Scottish Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

FOR the last week, there has been no getting away from the pain of losing the General Election. Colleagues can console themselves that it was not personal - even the most decent, most assiduous, most caring constituency MPs have been swept away by the scale of the political change.

But it can't help but be personal when you have a matter of days to pack up your office or deal with the poignancy of changing the answer phone message and nameplate. And I defy anyone not to be upset at the brutal reality of issuing your staff with their letters of redundancy.

There are of course many reasons and explanations already being offered for the scale of the defeat too, some constructively, some less so and as a Party, I hope we are able to respond thoughtfully rather than in anger and hurt at the result.

We need to balance any introspection with our sense of the wider perspective, not to avoid or evade any responsibility but the reverse, to appreciate the broader challenges that face us.

The disappointment of last Thursday was not simply that Scots chose the SNP over Labour in Scotland, but that despite five years of austerity economics, we failed to win the trust and support of voters across the whole of the UK, with almost 4m turning to Ukip.

My MEP colleague Catherine Stihler reminded me this week that similar forces are at work in Europe. That in elections in Finland and in Bremen in Germany, to pick just two very recent examples, the Social Democratic parties of the left have been squeezed, often with nationalist parties the biggest gainers.

And that is why we should be focussing not on the electoral success of any individual or even on the Scottish Labour Party but on the future direction of our country.

I still remember the elation of '97 and '99, when I thought we had shaken off the depressingly selfish divisiveness of the Thatcher years.

I remember the euphoria that greeted the dawn of a new Scottish Parliament, the new way of doing politics.

I had hoped that we had put behind us the right wing economics, the rubbishing of public service and public services, blaming the poor for their misfortune.

Here in Scotland we had the opportunity to develop our own self confidence to take charge of our own affairs, to make our own decisions and stop excusing ourselves by blaming everything that is wrong in Scotland on English Tories. I had thought that was all consigned to the past. How wrong could I be.

But whether we view the challenge ahead as a specifically Scottish one, or as one facing all progressive liberally minded people across the UK and Europe, the answer remains the same. Don't retreat from our values or principles but hold on to them ever more firmly. Stop focussing on our political opponents and ask people to look again at what we stand for.

Our first task here in Scotland is to accept that before people will see us as an alternative government we have to demonstrate we are an effective and constructive opposition. I am against nationalism more than I am against the SNP, and I recognise that most of the people who voted SNP are not nationalist either.

We need to stop the Scottish Parliament becoming solely a place to moan about Westminster rather than a vehicle for change and reform. My own party too has been caught up in the malaise. Our frustration has too often found itself expressed as anger at the faux progressivism of the SNP (and I have been as guilty as anyone) rather than trying to work together on education, health or social care. We should be highlighting how we use the powers of the Parliament to make a difference not complain about the powers we don't have to excuse inaction.

I recognise that it might be a slow and difficult process, but that is how we rebuild trust, regain the confidence of Scotland, remind everyone that whenever we think of "them and us" that Labour are the "us" not the "them". Labour is on your side, the party of change, the people and the party that will stand with you against the powerful and unaccountable.

When I was growing up and becoming political it was the Tories who lived in the past, Labour was always the party of the future. If you were optimistic about your life, about doing well and getting a good job, but also wanted to challenge unfairness and prejudice, then you turned to Labour. If you looked forward to having a house and bringing up a family, but also building the good society and making sure people were looked after in old age or in times of difficulty, that was Labour's vision. That was my vision. It has never changed. I know that somewhere along the way we have lost people, we have made mistakes, but my values have never changed and I don't think Labour's values have ever changed.

Scotland can lead the way again, not by turning our back on the UK or the rest of Europe, but by example as a progressive society, rewarding success but supporting those who need assistance. That's what I want, what I hope the people of Scotland want and that's what the Labour Party stands for.